Global fintech venture funding has fallen to its lowest level in seven years, with a 16% quarter-on-quarter decline between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. This is despite a reported 11% increase in venture funding across all sectors.
Analyst firm CB Insights recently released its quarterly venture capital report, highlighting activity in the first quarter of 2024. The firm called the quarter a "mixed risk market situation," citing eight consecutive quarters of declining equity deals as a negative factor. This was somewhat offset by gains from several huge deals, including Amazon's $4 billion investment in Anthropic AI .
The report shows that venture financing in the first quarter of 2024 totaled $58.4 billion. This represents a net quarter-on-quarter increase of 11% compared to $52.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. This indicates the possibility of a rebound; however, the overall market remains on a decline of 21% compared to Q1 2023 and 62% compared to Q1 2022.
The losses were reflected in the number of new unicorns - billion-dollar startups - which totaled just 19 in the quarter, up from 23 in the previous quarter, a drop of about 17% quarter-on-quarter from 2024.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
